


Pasta and Promises

by Arnaa



Category: Dark Angel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-11-01
Updated: 2010-11-01
Packaged: 2017-10-13 00:38:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,412
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/130879
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arnaa/pseuds/Arnaa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Max asks Asha for a favour with unexpected results</p>
            </blockquote>





	Pasta and Promises

**In the wee smalls of a night, as I was trying unsuccessfully to get back to sleep after being bounced on by a couple of cats chasing each other across my bed, I was thinking of the scene in ‘Borrowed Time’ where Alec and Asha are downing tequila shots and talking about Max and Logan. And from those sleep-deprived musings on Alec’s crack about "Why consummate two years of unbridled passion when we can have pasta?" comes the following.**

**Not betaed—read at your own risk!**

**Written while listening to Symphony Number 1 in E Minor, Opus 39 by Sibelius. Now there’s a great piece of music—angst, tenderness, passion and joy all in one place!**

**TIMELINE: references to ‘Two’, ‘Borrowed Time’ and ‘Hello and Goodbye’, but it’s pretty much floating along in an unrelated timeline all of it’s own.**

**  
**

**Pasta and Promises. **

****

**Asha took a deep breath and knocked on the door to Max’s apartment. She didn’t know why she was there so late at night, other than Max had told her that she would need her help at that hour.**

**Their first meeting had been rather unfortunate, although things had smoothed over somewhat since then. But Max asking for her help on something that wasn’t an Eyes Only project was still enough to make her a little nervous.**

**"Asha." Max held the door open for her to enter. "Thanks for coming."**

**"No problem." She stepped into the apartment, then surprise stopped her dead in her tracks. "Uh, Max? Do I want to know why you’ve got Alec duct taped to that chair?"**

**"Because she knows I’m better than she is," Alec answered.**

**"In which universe?" Max snorted, then turned back to Asha. "I need you to keep an eye on him for a while. Original Cindy has other commitments and given it’s Alec, if I left him here by himself the apartment would burn down or something."**

**Bemused, Asha looked at the serious amount of duct tape binding him to the chair, and the bruise on his right cheekbone. "Um, what exactly am I supposed to do with him while you’re gone?"**

**"Anything you want."**

**She tipped her head on one side, considering the possibilities of that. "Anything?"**

**Alec pulled against the tape. "Max, you really don’t want to do this."**

**"Two words." Max leaned down until their faces were level. "My baseball."**

**"It was my baseball, thank you so very much. I had a buyer all lined up—the cash was practically in my pocket, then you had to come along and ruin it."**

**"I had a buyer lined up too, you know. And I needed the money for a reason that didn’t involve beer or hookers."**

**"I offered to share with you, but noooo, you had to have it all."**

**"Shut up." She flicked the tip of his nose with her finger and straightened up to smile at Asha. "Thanks for doing this."**

**"No problem."**

**"Just don’t let him go, no matter what he says."**

**"Okay."**

**"And if he gives you any trouble, smack him upside the head with this." Max picked up the baseball bat that lay on the kitchen table next to a backpack and a roll of duct tape, and slapped it against her hand several times. "Hard."**

**Asha took the bat and examined it, feeling rather like Alice when she’d first fallen down the rabbit hole. "How hard would permanently damage an X5?"**

**"A lot less than you’d think," Alec hastily informed her.**

**"There’s some pasta in the fridge if you’re hungry." Max hitched the backpack onto her shoulder and started towards the door. "I’m not sure how long I’ll be, but I’ll make it as quick as I can."**

**The door clicked shut behind her, and Asha turned back to Alec. "What you did you do to get Max this mad at you?"**

**"Why is this automatically my fault?"**

**"Because it always is."**

**He gave an exaggerated sigh. "Max is just being paranoid."**

**"About?"**

**"Sammy Sosa's 756th home-run ball. We both tried for it awhile ago and, long story short, we got busted. After that it got locked up so tight even we couldn’t get to it, but as of this morning, it’s back on display."**

**"So Max is trying again tonight?"**

**"Yep. And this is her way of making sure I don’t get there first."**

**"Which of course you wouldn’t dream of doing."**

**"I told you, Max is just being paranoid."**

**"Yeah, right." She walked over to the fridge and opened the door to investigate the contents. "Past experience has absolutely nothing to do with it."**

**While her back was turned, he struggled against the tape. "Not a thing."**

**"Yeah, right," she said again, emerging from the fridge with a large plastic container in her hands. Peeling back the lid, she dabbled a fingertip in the sauce for a taste test. "Oooh, yes. Pasta made by Logan."**

**"You know that from one little taste?" She gave him a look that said ‘duh’ as plainly as if she’d spoken the word, and he rolled his eyes. "Of course you do. All that time you spent up there in his fancy apartment, saving the world together—"**

**"At least Logan thinks about someone other than himself." She took a pot out of the cupboard and placed it on the bench top, then found a wooden spoon and used it to decant the pasta from the plastic bowl into the pot. "You should try it sometime."**

**"Any time I’m feeling masochistic enough for the grief that comes with being a hero, I’ll be sure to let you know." He tugged against his bonds once again, and once again, they failed to shift an iota. "C’mon Asha, this isn’t funny any more. Cut me loose."**

**"If I do, you’ll scam that ball out from under Max and she’d never forgive me for it."**

**"Since when do you care?"**

**"I don’t." She turned the element on and placed the pot on top of it. "But for whatever reason, she trusted me to help her tonight and I’m not going to mess that up."**

**"Oh, I get it. She trusted you because Logan told her she could, and that’s what you don’t want to mess up."**

**A fractional pause betrayed the truth of that before she retorted, "You know, Max isn’t the only one around here who’s paranoid."**

**"Yeah, right." Even as his brain was shouting at him to let it go, his mouth kept digging him in deeper. "Logan says the word, and you come running to do a favour for someone you don’t even like."**

**Her face tightened. "At least I don’t tell someone I want them with one breath and then tell them to stay away from me with the next."**

**"You said you were glad nothing happened that night."**

**"That night, because of all the tequila we’d had. I never said I didn’t want something to happen another night."**

**"I was just trying to do the right thing. The situation out there is only going to get worse, and a transgenic boyfriend is the last thing you need."**

**"Don’t tell me what I need!" She surprised them both by shouting. "You’re not the only one who knows what it’s like to lose someone you love! I’m not stupid either—I know the risks involved in this ‘situation’. The difference is I was willing to take the chance and you weren’t."**

**"Asha—"**

**"Shut up!" Embarrassed by her outburst, she turned her attention to making sure the pasta didn’t burn as it re-heated. "Just shut up, before I use the rest of that tape on your mouth."**

**After what seemed like a silence that lasted forever, the pasta was ready and she ladled the re-heated food into a large bowl. Ferreting through the cutlery drawer produced a fork, and still without speaking, she began to eat.**

**With a bowl of delicious pasta in her stomach, Asha felt her mood lighten. It would be a long night if they just sat there without saying another word until Max returned, and she decided to make a peace offering. Refilling the bowl with pasta, she found a clean fork and walked over to the chair to wave the food under his nose. "You want some of this? It’s really good."**

**"No," his mouth said at the same moment his stomach rumbled loudly.**

**She laughed, her good humour now completely restored. "Make up your mind."**

**Alec glared at her. "You are so in trouble when I get out of here."**

**"Blah, blah, woof, woof." She scooped some pasta onto the fork and held it to his mouth. "Stop pouting and eat."**

**"I’m not pou—" he began, and broke off as she took advantage of his mouth being open to shovel the food into it. He chewed and swallowed, and when he again tried to speak, she shoveled in another forkful.**

**This time, he forgot his resentment enough to make appreciative noises. "Hey, this is good."**

**"Told you." She pulled a chair up next to him and fed him another mouthful. "So, just out of curiousity, what would you have done with the money if you’d got the ball tonight?"**

**He shrugged as best he could with all the tape wrapped around him and explained between the mouthfuls she kept feeding him. "I didn’t have any specific plans this time. It’s more that I missed getting it the first time because Max got in the way. I actually had the thing in my hand, y’know?"**

**"So what went wrong?"**

**"I dropped it when Max tried to grab it, which set off an alarm and we had to run for it. It was not funny," he added when she giggled.**

**"Sorry." Her tone was unrepentant. "But that certainly explains tonight."**

**"Tonight is a paranoid over-reaction."**

**"Right."**

**"It was my heist, dammit. She had the nerve to rip off what I was rightfully stealing, and then blame me because it went sideways."**

**"The woman has no decency."**

**"None at all."**

**This time she laughed outright. "You are so full of it."**

**"Asha, I’m hurt." He did a good job of looking like it too. She merely shook her head in disbelief, and fed him another forkful of pasta. "That ball is worth at least fifteen grand, and do I get a fair chance at it now it’s available again? No, all I get is smacked in the face and taped to a chair."**

**"At least you’re getting fed while you’re all taped up." She scraped the remnants of the pasta on to the fork and held it out to him. "Last one."**

**While he ate that, she leaned over to place the bowl and fork on the floor beside the chair.**

**"Oops, sauce." All she meant to do was wipe the smear of sauce from the corner of his mouth with her thumb. But somehow, when that was done, she found herself tracing the curve of his mouth. Say what you want about Manticore, they’d sure known how to make the boy pretty.**

**"Asha—"**

**"Shut up." She had to do this now, before she thought of the possible consequences and lost her nerve.**

**At first, the kiss was little more than her mouth brushing over his, waiting for any sign of resistance. His brain knew he should end this before it even began, but his body knew what it wanted—what it had always wanted from her—and it wasn’t about to listen to reason.**

**He deepened the kiss and felt her smile, the victory hers. With new confidence she leaned into him and sampled his mouth thoroughly, her obvious pleasure in him sending him spinning into a world centred only on the taste, scent and feel of her.**

**Edgy need began to claw at him. It was a familiar sensation, but it surprised him to feel it so soon. And it surprised him again how fast that need grew as she fisted her hands in his hair and pulled his head back to allow her to trail kisses down his neck to the hollow of his throat.**

**"Cut me loose." The words came without conscious thought, his voice husky with passion. "I need my hands on you."**

**She stilled. "Max—"**

**"Won’t care as long as she gets the stupid baseball. Just cut me loose so I can put my hands on you."**

**She lifted her head and looked him in the eyes, trying to assess the risk of fulfilling his request. If she released him and he chose to leave, there would be nothing she could do to stop him, nothing she could do to protect herself from the consequences that would follow.**

**_You’re just afraid to open up and take a chance on someone._ Her own voice echoed in her head, the accusation coming back at her. She  was afraid—of what it meant if he left, of what it meant if he stayed.**

**_When you’ve been dead a hundred years little girl, you’ve only just begun to be dead._ **

**It had been true that night in Crash, and it was true now. The only way she’d ever know what they could have together would be if she put her heart on the line right now. And however badly it ended, Asha suddenly knew it would be better than not taking the risk at all.**

**She stood up and pulled the Swiss Army knife from her back jeans pocket. It had been a gift from her brother when she’d first joined him in the field—he’d said then you never knew when having a knife might come in handy, and how right he’d been. This scenario was probably one he’d never thought of though.**

**She opened the knife and inserted the tip where the curve at the edge of the backrest left a slight gap between the tape and the chair. Using a sawing motion, she sliced through the tape as quickly as she could—she didn’t want to have time to think about the risk she was taking in setting him free.**

**With the tape split, she closed the knife and shoved it back in her pocket. She used her fingertips to peel the edge of the tape away from the chair until she could get enough of a grip to pull at it with both hands.**

**Once on his feet, Alec eased the kinks out of his muscles with a full body stretch. She watched him warily, knowing the moment of truth had come and suddenly panicked that she’d made the wrong choice.**

**Then he turned to her and held out his hand. She hadn’t realised until that moment that she was holding her breath, and expelled it in a gust of relief. It was going to be all right after all.**

**She placed her hand in his and he slowly moved backwards, guiding her out of the harsh kitchen light into the shadows of the living area. When they reached the couch, he drew her down on top of him and wrapped his arms around her, pressing his face into the curve of her neck. And as he felt the warmth of her skin beneath his touch, as he breathed in the scent of her being, he became aware of something unfamiliar happening in the region of his heart. It was almost a physical sensation as all the walls he’d so carefully built to protect himself crumbled into dust, leaving in their place a comfort he’d never known before.**

**And with that comfort came another unfamiliar emotion—the need to cherish the woman who’d had the courage to lay her heart on the line for him. He knew what to do with desire, but this unexpected tenderness took his breath away. And he had no idea what he was supposed to about that.**

**She stroked his hair, her touch gentle. "Are you okay? You’re shaking."**

**He lifted his face and looked into her eyes, wondering how to begin. "I want you."**

**Her smile was pure feminine satisfaction. "I can tell."**

**"But wanting isn’t enough. Not with you." Before, saying the right thing to a woman had always been instinctive, but now when he needed it most, that talent seemed to have deserted him. "I don’t want us to just be about sex. I mean, sex would be good too, but I want more than that. And the only way I can think of making that happen is by not starting out with sex."**

**Asha frowned as she tried to sort her way through that. "If this is a variation on your ‘I was made in a lab, leave me alone’ speech, I will hurt you—badly." She didn’t stop to think how a slightly built ordinary girl could hurt a genetically empowered X5 male as much as that would deserve—she just knew she’d find a way.**

**"No! What I’m trying to say is that you’re special." Her face softened, and he realised with relief that had been the right thing to say. "I never felt this way before and I don’t want to mess it up. We didn’t get any relationship instructions at Manticore you know."**

**"I know." Now she understood he wasn’t trying to push her away again, she relaxed. "We can take this as slowly as you want."**

**"Promise you won’t give up on me, no matter what."**

**"I promise you’re stuck with me for ever."**

**He smiled then, a sweet, gentle smile that went straight to her heart. "Just be with me tonight, okay?"**

**"Okay." She smiled back, then settled herself comfortably against him.**

**He pulled the throw rug from the back of the couch and wrapped it around them against the chill of the night. Then, with a contented sigh, he closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep listening to the beat of her heart.**

****

**  
Dawn streaked the morning sky when Max finally let herself back into her apartment. A long delay at a sector checkpoint had compounded the longer than expected time it had taken to get her hands on the baseball in the first place. Now all she wanted to do was get rid of Alec and Asha and soak forever in a hot bath.**

**It took her a moment to realise what was wrong with the scene that met her eyes. Then her backpack hit the floor with a thud, and she stared in disbelief at the empty chair festooned with torn duct tape.**

**"Argh!" Her fists clenched in frustration. "One thing—just one thing I ask Blondie to do and she messes it up!"**

**"Max?" Asha’s head appeared above the arm of the couch, hair tousled, eyes sleepy. "Is that you?"**

**An accusing finger jabbed in the direction of the chair. "You let him go!"**

**"Geez, would you relax?" Alec’s head appeared next to Asha’s. "I’m still here."**

**Asha caught the expression on Max’s face and hurriedly put in, "You told me I could do anything I wanted with him."**

**"I meant hurt him, not make out with him!"**

**"That’s not very nice," Alec chided at the same time as Asha said,**

**"Oh. Sorry, maybe next time."**

**Max gritted her teeth and prayed for patience. "Whatever. You can leave now."**

**"What, no breakfast?" Alec asked. "You keep us here all night so you can steal my baseball, and now you’re just gonna throw us out into the cold street without so much as a piece of toast?"**

**"I have toast at my place," Asha offered before Max could find the words to properly deal with that impertinence.**

**"Yeah?"**

**"Lots and lots of toast."**

**"Okay."**

**They smiled at each other, and Max shook her head in disbelief. What the hell had happened here while she was gone? The last time she’d tried to talk to Alec about Asha, she’d got the ‘We don’t belong with them’ speech—one reason she’d thought it safe to leave the woman here with him. The other being that Logan had told her she could trust Blondie.**

**Logan. At least it looked like she wouldn’t have to worry about Asha in that way any more. Maybe life wasn’t so bad after all and, in light of that, she could afford to be a little generous.**

**She walked towards the kitchen, calling over her shoulder, "I’ve got real coffee. I’ll give you some to go with that toast."**

****

**  
**

**THE END**

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